Originally posted 31st August 2014
We hear it all the time. "We need more women in politics" or "we need more ethnic minorities represented in parliament". Whilst I don't fully dispute these comments, I believe statements like this overlook something a lot more important.
In the past 15 years, UK politics has been dominated by a Labour party with a crushing majority. Thanks to this, we ended up with such disasters as Afghanistan and Iraq, which in turn, bred monsters such as ISIL. I'd also like to know what went so wrong with society when Blair's Labour came to power that the country required 3000 (yes, 3000) new laws, by 2006? This is another catastrophic abuse of a huge parliamentary majority.
The coalition government has spent a lot of time in office, removing the laws that are completely unnecessary from the statute book. This time has in effect, been wasted on cleaning up the mess left by a sloppy, inefficient cadre of 'Blairites' bent on imposing their ideology upon the world.
Since they were removed from power, we have seen some interesting changes in terms of government majorities. The current main parties would have the nation believe that a good strong majority is needed to take decisive action. This is of course, rubbish. Why not just have a dictatorship if this is the case? There's 650 seats in the House of Commons for a very good reason, and that is to have the views of the country represented. The vote on intervention in Syria vividly illustrated this. What might have happened if say, Blair was in power? I dread to think!
On the continent, coalition government is something that not just happens occasionally, but is a frequent occurrence. The German's frequently operate a coalition in the Bundestag, and take a look at how their country is getting on. Public services are delivered competently and the country's government pension schemes are in surplus. The country's economy is the most efficient on the planet. And public spending is under control.
Anyway, I hope we're entering a new era in British politics where the designation of parliamentary seats is fragmented between more than just three parties. In fact, I believe we are. With the rise of parties such as UKIP, George Galloway's 'Respect' and the Green party, domestic diplomacy will be forced upon our elected representatives. Nor should people be afraid of parties such as UKIP, the Greens or Respect. They will either succeed by merit or fail by incompetence. The people who support the idea of a majority should try to imagine what a polar opposite majority might feel like. These principles also apply to the politics of the United States. What a choice the electorate are faced with there periodically! The lesser of two hypocrites seems the theme of US election fever.
So, above all, our country's government needs to be politically diverse. And if we concentrate on political diversity primarily, then all other forms of diversity will permeate throughout the chamber, by default. At the moment, the appointment of women to senior positions in government is used as a tool to attract the female vote. This is just cynical and symbolic. There'd be more women, more gays, more working class, more ethnic minorities, etc. if we concentrated on political diversity. To achieve this diversity though, a system of proportional representation is needed. The Liberal Democrats did propose this concept, but it was blocked by the Conservatives who offered a referendum on the 'Alternative Vote' system as a compromise. Why the Conservatives blocked this proposal is obvious. It would have made the system fair and just, and if it was successfully written into law, probably no party would have won an outright majority again.